Letters

Excelencia: Pela presente, o Comitê para a Proteção dos Jornalistas (CPJ), uma organização sem fins lucrativos radicada em Nova York que se dedica a defender a liberdade de imprensa em todo o mundo, manifesta sua preocupação com o jornalista equatoriano Rodrigo Fierro Benítez, que foi condenado pelo delito de injúria em 2003 e cuja sentença foi ratificada recentemente.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the prolonged detention of journalist Jiang Weiping, who is currently serving a six-year prison sentence in Dalian, Liaoning Province. As of last month, Jiang had served half his sentence and is now eligible for parole under Chinese law. He should be released immediately.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about the prolonged detention of freelance journalist Khawar Mehdi Rizvi. We call on your government to confirm which agency is holding Rizvi, to make any charges against him public, or to release him immediately.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the sentencing of writer Nguyen Vu Binh to seven years in jail, followed by three years of house arrest upon his release.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) calls for a thorough, independent, and immediate investigation into the death of Marco Boukoukou Boussaga, editor-in-chief of the privately owned bimonthly newspaper L’Autre journal, based in the capital, Libreville.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed by an ongoing series of attacks on local journalists in Bangladesh’s southern Jhalakathi District led by members of your political party, the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is concerned about a proposed bill governing the Yemeni press syndicate, or journalists’ union. The bill, which Parliament is scheduled to debate within the next few days, contains several articles that run counter to internationally accepted norms of free speech.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about recent attacks and threats against Amir Mir, senior assistant editor of the English-language monthly the Herald.

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the imprisonment of Maman Abou, director of the private weekly newspaper Le Républicain. At a closed, secret trial on November 7, Abou was sentenced to six months in prison for criminal defamation. Neither Abou nor his lawyers were present at the trial, according to Abou’s colleagues, who are in constant contact with him. Abou is currently being held at the Central Prison in the capital, Niamey.